Preparations are underway for the grand opening of the new United States embassy to Israel in Jerusalem. While the President wont be able to attend as he prepares for his summit with North Korea, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have arrived to do the honors along with a number of other delegates. But not everyone is quite so thrilled with this development, particularly in some parts of the European Union. They were preparing to put forward a resolution condemning the embassy move, delivering a statement which was explicitly designed to embarrass and isolate the Trump administration ahead of the ceremony.

That nasty little poison pill fell apart this weekend, however, when three member nations blocked the resolution. The objection was led by Hungary, which was quickly joined by Romania and the Czech Republic. (Axios)

Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania, in coordination with Israel, today blocked a joint EU statement criticizing the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Israeli officials and European diplomats told me.

Behind the scenes: The initiative to publish the statement was led by France and several other EU member states. Israeli officials say the goal was to present to the U.S. a common position against the move by all 28 member states, and to embarrass and isolate the Trump administration ahead of Mondays ceremony.

It turns out that the driving force behind the original resolution was French President Emmanuel Macron. Nice ally, eh? And it was only a few weeks ago that he was over here getting all touchy-feely with Trump amid speculation that he was playing some sort of flattery game to advance his position with the United States. So its perhaps not all that surprising that the revolt would be led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who has been no fan of the socialist bent of the European Union and frequently acted as a thorn in the side of Brussels.

Its also unsurprising that the Czechs and the Romanians would join in with Orban on this. Both countries are currently reviewing plans to possibly move their embassies to Jerusalem as well. That put a bit of a damper on the three points listed in the resolution, which were as follows:

Jerusalem should be the capital of both states  Israel and the future state of Palestine.

The final status of Jerusalem should be negotiated and only determined through negotiations between the parties.

The member states of the EU will not follow the U.S. and will not move their embassies to Jerusalem.

Heres one question for Macron and the rest of the EU leaders who were prepared to go along with this insult. Why is it anyones business where the U.S. Embassy to Isreal is located except for the United States and Israel? The embassy can be wherever both countries mutually decide it should be. And trying to tell us where to locate our embassy looks rather embarrassing for Brussels when they cant even enforce such an order on their own member nations. Perhpas minding your own business would be the better course of action here.

Poster Comment:

Too funny to see the EU's smelly little plot to embarrass Trump so deftly foiled by Orban.

The Trump WH is a culture of raw sewage... There is nothing that anybody can say or do that would insult them... they just merely absorb & wallow in the slimey shit that they embrace as a protective barrier...

I thought it was funny to see Orban crap all over Macron's petty plot to grab a few cheap headlines.

The EU thought it was admitting satellites.

But the NATO alliance is led by the USA, not Brussels.

The smaller states of the East that joined both did not intend to be freed of the Soviets only to hand their countries over to the French, British and Germans. They intend to be free states - protected by NATO - and rich states - economically within the EU.

And they are perfectly willing to play their security chief, the USA, off against their economic chiefs, in Brussels, to make their own way forward.

I just was into the schadenfreude when those eastern states flipped them off and ruined their little scheme to condemn the new US embassy with a "unified voice".

I wouldn't be surprised if these three countries announce they are ready to move their embassies as well. And I bet the Israelis will give them a prime embassy location too.

Trump and Bibi have paved the way for this with advance work. The Romanian prez got an early WH visit with Trump. The Czechs and Hungarians are also recognized. And Israeli diplomacy is quite strong in eastern Europe. Bibi had a very successful tour in Hungary last year, spent 3-4 days there, right around the time they were passing laws to ban Soros and his subversive organizations. Israel is helping the Romanians try to establish a little Silicon Valley of their own, a regional tech hub like the ones that have worked well for Finland.

I can think of others, like a few of the Baltics, perhaps Austria, moving their embassies as well. When that EU diplomatic dam breaks, it will break fast. In fact, this will pose a key test of EU authority to force members to do its will in foreign policy. The EU bigwigs may regret picking this little diplo fight with eastern Europe and America if it makes the EU look even more toothless and weak.

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Too soon for any stories to be published but AP just tweeted that the USSC struck down all bans on state-sponsored sports betting.

In fact, this will pose a key test of EU authority to force members to do its will in foreign policy. The EU bigwigs may regret picking this little diplo fight with eastern Europe and America if it makes the EU look even more toothless and weak.

The EU is, above all, an ECONOMIC alliance. When it comes to standards and patents and regulatory inspection frameworks, of course all of Europe has to play by the same rules. The EU, and the Common Market before that, have been great at elevating the GDP of the free European countries.

When it comes to foreign policy and defense policy, though, the desire of the old imperial powers, France and the UK, particularly France, to turn the EU into a base of international political power is a weak game. Europe simply doesn't have the military power to do that. Nor does it have the military record. America is utterly credible in the military sphere. We always beat Europeans, every time. The only people we DIDN'T beat was the Vietnamese, and who cares? It may drive crazy,American armchair warriors who want to speak of an unbroken record by redefining words, but nobody else cares, or should.

The US is the prime mover in military affairs, and military power is the prime mover, or backup force, in all international relations. Sure, economic power matters, but it's military power is still the alpha.

So, of course the Eastern Europeans want to be active members of the EU for economic reasons. But when it comes to military affairs, the EU is small beer and all posturing. The USA is the King, and currying favor with the King on matters of concern to the King is the way to gain favors from Washington that Paris and Brussels cannot match.

So, of course the Eastern Europeans want to be active members of the EU for economic reasons. But when it comes to military affairs, the EU is small beer and all posturing. The USA is the King, and currying favor with the King on matters of concern to the King is the way to gain favors from Washington that Paris and Brussels cannot match.

You just know it's eating Macron and Merkel alive today that Orban and the Czechs and Romanians spoiled their little tantrum over our embassy move.

You just know it's eating Macron and Merkel alive today that Orban and the Czechs and Romanians spoiled their little tantrum over our embassy move.

They have a way they look at the world. There is no evangelical yahoo wing of their electorate insisting on an unreasoningly pro-Israel stance, they derive no security advantage from Israel, which is a quintessentially American ally, but they very much want good relations with the Muslim world, because they have very large Muslim constituencies, because they need oil, and because there is opportunity for them to be found in trade with rogue states.

Also, they simply don't like the in-your-face, unconstrained DEGREE of American dominance. In the EU, France, Germany and the UK all cock-block each other a lot, none can simply do as it pleases without consequences. And that makes them all feel better, because their jealousies are aroused when any member state starts to look to crawl out of the pot. The Americans act with the high-handedness that the British, French and Germans did of old, in their turn. The Germans were beaten far down, but the French and English never really were, so they are still playing balance of power games in their minds, and within Europe, they have a veto on anything. This makes them feel a tolerable equality. When the US acts unilaterally, and high- handedly, it upsets them, reminds them of their inferiorty in power and status, and causes them to want to drag the US down into line with the consensus.

For my part, I suppose I'm a bit of an anti-Semite, as it is currently defined.

I don't hate Jews, or Arabs, or Semitic peoples in general. But I also don't think they are unique, or special, or God's beloved children, any more than anybody else.

They, in their respective false religions (Judaism and Islam and Druze) all think they are special, and a whole set of moronic Christians believe that claptrap. But I think it's crap.

The Jewish religion is that of a tribe. The Hindus have theirs. The Alabamians have theirs. I don't really care. The Muslim religion is an aggressive, violently proselytizing ideology, a threat to world peace.

I categorically reject the concept that modern Israel is ordained by God. The destruction of biblical Israel was ordained by Jesus Christ and carried out by God in 69 AD. The day of the structure of things in the Old Testament was ended by God himself. So I see the attempts to equate the modern colony of Israel with Biblical Israel as being God-defying anti- Christian blasphemy taught by morons TO morons, and IF that is the basis for our foreign aid to Israel, I would cut it off and let Israel be wiped out.

Israel has nothing to do with the Israel of the Bible. THAT Israel was destroyed by God for rejecting Christ. The descendants of that tribe STILL reject Christ, so their religion is blasphemous and the folks who don't understand that are just wrong.

That said, the ethnicity, Jews, particularly European Jews, have been given shit by evil Christians for a millennium and a half. Given what was done to them by modern white secular European culture, without a rescue by American culture, I do consider that Jews have the right to a place to be secure.

And given the proselytizing evil and arrogance of Islam, parking it smack lick-a-dab in the Middle of Dar-es-Islam and demonstrating the toothless non-existence of Allah by his complete inability to eradicate a postage stamp state is an important lesson. It takes a long time to teach the religious lesson: YOUR GOD DOES NOT EXIST. Backwaters take forever to catch on. But the way they eventually catch on is by being blasted to hell in war, where their non-existent gods do NOTHING to stop the scientifically and economically superior foe.

So, the ethnic Jewish state there in Palestine has no religious significance in the direction of truth - Judaism is not right - BUT it sure puts the lie to Allah and the whole advancing Islam business. It causes Islam to blow itself up in distemper and shatter its teeth again and again. And that's good, because four generations of endless defeat and poverty have eventually worn out the Jordanians, the Iraqis, the Saudis, and so many others. And the "Catholic" form of Islam threat - the Shi'ites of Iran - to the "Protestant" form in Sunni Islam, has caused the rich oil states to start to speak the truth, which is that what Allah wants regarding Israel is not nearly as important as what the Arabs (and, conveniently, Allah) DON'T want regarding dominance over their religion and lives by Shi'ite Iran.

I want to see peace between Syria and Israel, because Syria is the last country that borders Syria that has not bent the knee to reality and recognized that Israel is there to stay and not worth fighting.

Get THAT war to end, and then I have to worry a lot less about terrorism in America, and I can spend a lot less on Israeli security and foreign aid.

Which means that the boobs who have messianic dreams about Israel and who think that's what our foreign aid is all about finally get their comeuppance when we stop spending that money, because it's not necessary.

Then they can bleed out the eyes about it down in Alabama and talk about how we've turned away from the "Chosen People" and will be "Left Behind". Really, it's those folks who will be left behind, and all that money we throw down the rathole of Middle Eastern war can be spent on more important things, like health care and schools and pensions.

Exactly. Stop wasting money on the Israelis and Palis and Egyptians. And the Koreans.

The world really has better things to do than allow international relations to revolve around these rather puny nations and their conflicts going back 50-70 years.

I'm sick of the whole bunch.

Yep. And that means that Assad either bends the knee or he dies. The Russians are complicating the situation right now by propping up Assad.

So THEY had better make him bend the knee, to survive. Because if instead they try to prop him up to CONTINUE to not make peace with Israel, we are stronger than Russia, we can kill Assad ourselves, and the new government we install in Syria can and will drive out the Russian naval base - and that will be the end of any permanent Russian presence in the Mediterranean. They will have no-place to anchor and resupply, and they will be forced back into the Black Sea, an utter strategic calamity.

So, Russia, if you want to keep your base, make Assad make peace and end the Syrian-Israeli war for good, and stop acting as a conduit for Iran. Otherwise we will destroy your ally, kill as many of your mercenaries as we need to, drive your fleet from the Mediterranean, and hand out an outright military defeat that you cannot answer, just as we did in Afghanistan.

No, we won't ratchet up the Ukraine business, because that's stupid, but if you get TOO threatening, we always can. We have ten times your economy, five times your military strength, and you will back down or you will be defeated, militarily, on two battlefronts. No, we are not afraid of taking you on. And no, we are not afraid that you will decide to commit national suicide because of Syria. You're not going to go to nuclear war over Tartus. We know it, and so do you.

So get real and grow up. You cannot have it your way. You CAN keep Assad, but he MUST bend the knee and make peace with Israel. Then he gets to live and you get your base. Otherwise, we kill him, defeat you, and drive you out: you get bupkis.

That will save us a ton of money and reduce a lot of stress.

And the Palestinians? Take Syria out of the picture and they can't arm themselves anymore. Then they either submit or starve. Israel can deal with them.

Which brings us to Korea. Trump is going to broker the reunification of the peninsula. Just you watch. Kim will be like Pinochet, or Hirohito. Protected. A potentate. Left alone. God can give justice to him in the end. It is far more important for the other 80 million Koreans, and us, that there be peace. That means letting Kim live a great life. Fine. Get it done, Trump.

China? Those islands they built are no prize to them. The whole region is riled against them, and unifying with us, and soon they will have Korea on their border.

The Chinese are not stupid. They have come far. They will integrate into the world system. They won't be poster boys - neither are we - but there won't be war.

That lets us turn back to our hemisphere, and our own garden, where we've got plenty to tend to that we have neglected.

So THEY had better make him bend the knee, to survive. Because if instead they try to prop him up to CONTINUE to not make peace with Israel, we are stronger than Russia, we can kill Assad ourselves, and the new government we install in Syria can and will drive out the Russian naval base - and that will be the end of any permanent Russian presence in the Mediterranean. They will have no-place to anchor and resupply, and they will be forced back into the Black Sea, an utter strategic calamity.

We're never gonna do that.

The objective is to eject Iran from Syria. Israel and America and the Sunni monarchs will not allow Tehran to create an entrenched position all the way from Iran to the Mediterranean.

Which brings us to Korea. Trump is going to broker the reunification of the peninsula. Just you watch. Kim will be like Pinochet, or Hirohito. Protected. A potentate. Left alone. God can give justice to him in the end. It is far more important for the other 80 million Koreans, and us, that there be peace. That means letting Kim live a great life. Fine. Get it done, Trump.

I think this will be the general direction they take. A governor-for-life of the "northern province". Since Kim is already worth $5-$10 billion and has a handful of other corrupt officials, they can just model their province after the way Putin runs Russia with half-a-dozen cronies at the top and Kim as the big cheese "governor" and richest guy in Korea. And as the northern region grows economically, Kim and his circle will only get richer.

It'll be kinda corrupt but I think Korea is ready to move forward. So what if Kim gets richer? The entire country will prosper if Korea re-unites, far more than what it takes to keep Kim and a handful of his crony generals satisfied. And this solution allows them to actually go somewhere to spend all that loot, like Paris or various Asian countries.